ATPL Integrated

Hello i am about to start my ATPL integrated course this feb i just want to know what type of study methods you guys have for the 14 subjects and how did you do in "atpl" and how was it for you, also which of the subjects are hardest and which are the easiest. so if any of you "atpl" graduates can help me out with any methods of studying and how many study hours a day do i need, it would be really appreciated

Thank You:)

Well did it in London.. took 11 months and passed all 14 exams First time. Not that its rocket science... but I did read every single Day from 08-22 hours... only exemption being eating, and the trainride Home after School. General navigation and principles of flight, performance, meteology are the biggest and hardest. Studying hard and make sure you UNDERSTAND it, not just getting through the exam.. this knowledge is the base knowledge for the rest of your potentional career. To many idiots just want to pass... Also the guys failing their airline interviews later on...

Mass and balance/radio/human performance etc are normal Subjects.

Good luck :-)

I did mine in 7 months. The difficulty depends on your personality: I have trouble learning things by memory so I had a hard time with Airlaw or Ops. On the other hand, I felt a bit more comfortable in GeNav because I have a math background. Moreover, subjects such as AGK ou Met are quite dense: it is a lot of material to absorb.

I couldn't stress enough the point raised by Flapmonkey. I also studied from 9am until midnight during the study period. Bear in mind that you are not only tested on what you know (who cares about GeNav?) but also your ability to sustain the pace: it’s a marathon.

You are also going to realize that your success is linked to the amount of questions you bang (that includes understand). Your school may have it's own guidelines but I found the following worked well for a 8 month interval between exams:

• At the beginning of the study of each subject (week 1 to 3), you spend more time reading the books so your quota of questions is low.
  
• From week #4, you should answer 300 questions per day minimum (it obviously depends on the subject: for example, Flight Planning requires more time to complete the calculations).
  
• At the end, before the pre exam week and the exams, you should focus on the speed (assuming you know how to answer already) and do some mock up exams.

I found that watching some ATPL videos helped me to understand: I would have some "breaks" between 2 series of questions.

If you can go through 2 or 3 times through your school question bank plus another one (question bank), that will help.

The strategies that don't work (statistically):

• waiting for the week before the pre-exam course to start studying:
  

  - if you are still up to study at 3 am before your exam, you have a serious problem!
  

  - if you wait for the exam to discover the graphs of Mass and Balance, Flight Planning and Performance, you are in trouble! You may find the answer (eventually) but you will run out of time.
  - again, it's about sustaining the pace (300 questions mini!)
  

• learning the questions by memory (and not understanding how to get the results): the authorities sometimes change part of the question banks (the CAA-UK has apparently decided to put the question bank providers out of business).
  

Last points:

• get everything sorted in your life BEFORE. There is no time for distraction.
  
• you know the program in advance (which subjects and how many questions per subject) so you must organize yourself to be ready on time. Do not fall into the trap of postponing an exam! It's fine to postpone it if you've been studying hard a topic (and the others) and fell that you would just need 1 or 2 week to polish it later. If you haven't done anything, that's a very slippery slope.
  
• if you mess around during the study period, your school might not endorse you (for some schools, it's not an empty threat): you will lose the exam fees and may have to pay again also for a new pre-exam course.
  
• when you fail a check ride, you may still put it on the examiner for being picky (even if he/she has guidelines). In the ATPL, it's you against yourself so if you fail, there is no one to blame.
  
• if you can afford it (time building?), take a weekly break (Sunday?), get a plane and fly! It's nice to feel that all this theory has practical applications.
  

Good luck!